Oklahoma Teens Could Face Child Porn Charges For Risque Photos

Sending and exchanging risque pictures has become common among teenagers, but they don't realize they could be charged with making child pornography.

Wednesday, February 11th 2015, 7:18 pm

By: News On 6


Police confiscated the phone of a Webbers Falls student recently and sent it to the OSBI because it contained a nude picture of another student.

Sending and exchanging pictures like that has become so common among teenagers, but they don't realize they could be charged with making child pornography or have to register as a sex offender.

Peer to peer porn is becoming more common among kids in middle school. They see it as sexy or harmless, not as a crime that could change their futures.

“They can be registered as a sex offender, kicked out of school. There are too many things going on and they think it's funny, and every single child is doing it," said one parent.

She is raising three boys in Broken Arrow.

She said her 13 year old is a good kid, so when another parent contacted her about a picture her son sent to their daughter, she wasn't happy.

She made her son delete the picture, call the girl and her parents to apologize and took his phone away, but she realizes it could've been worse had the other parent called 911.

"If I could find a phone that make, mom, dad and 911, I'd purchase it, because these 13 year olds don't understand the severity of what they're doing," she said.

Neither do most of their parents. Many may chalk up the behavior to, kids will be kids, or, everyone is doing it, but that's not how the law sees it.

In Oklahoma, child pornography is any depiction of a child under 16 in a nude or semi-nude state.

"With child pornography, if you have it, it's possession. If you send it, that's distribution and if you film or photograph it, that could lead to manufacturing child pornography charges and you don't want that hanging on you, it will ruin your life," said Tulsa County Assistant District Attorney, Ben Fu.

It doesn't matter what their intent is; and even though most kids won't be charged, he reminds them that nothing is ever deleted, and those pictures could haunt them years from now.

The parent said it's not just boys. She said she has girls you'd never expect sending sexy pictures to her son.

“If the girls think they're sending it to one boy because he's their boyfriend, that he's not sending them to 15 of his best friends, they're crazy," she said.

She wants schools to hold assemblies on sexting like they do on bullying and drunk driving.

She thinks kids need to be taught the consequences, and parents need to be taught how to find the images through apps like Instagram, Snapchat and PhotoVault.

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